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tv   Lockup Boston  MSNBC  February 24, 2013 2:00am-3:00am PST

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>> and, then, of course, the bar >> i still think you would make >> i'm going to stay here until
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matter, viewer discretion is
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america's prisons. dangerous. often deadly. there are 2 million people doing time. every day is a battle to survive and to maintain order. >> down, on your feet. >> this is "lockup: inside angola." >> over 5,000 men living behind the gates of one of america's oldest prisons. serving sentences so long, most will die here. >> one out of every two at you see in this prisson a murderer. >> violence close to the surface ready to explode. >> trouble is not hard to find. if you're looking for it. if you're not careful, trouble will find you. >> maintain my mental civility when i leave and am six feet in the ground. >> two ways out, dead or alive.
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90 miles from new orleans, up the mississippi river lies louisiana state penitentiary. commonly referred to as angola at 18,000 acres, it's the largest prison in america. started as a slave plantation in the 1700s, converted to a prison plantation at the end of the civil war and taken over by the state in 1901, this storied land has seen more than its share of pain. it was once considered the bloodiest prison in america and its current cop pulgs of 5148 men serve sentences so long it's estimated that 90% of them will die here. yet things have changed drastically over the past decade and much credit goes to warden burl cain. >> corrections is our name.
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the root word is to correct deviant behavior. if we can save one person from becoming a violent criminal. that's really what our mission is. not to torment and torture but to correct bad behavior and do that any way you can. and the root way to do that is morality. moral people, obviously, don't rape, pilfer and steal. >> right here in the midst of angola, i have seen change and it's because -- >> it works on two levels. one, spiritual and religious. the other engaging in employment opportunities. church is optional. work is not. >> really for about a month now and been with lsp productions for about nine months. >> perhaps the most unusual example of innovation at angola is the tv station. the only big house production company in the united states.
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>> one, two, three, four. >> before we do a shoot, we have to kind of step back and kind of ask, if some outside company was doing it, what would they ask? >> choose your behavior. choose your consequence. i chose angola by the lifestyle i was living. i'm not just going to lay down, roll over. i want my life to mean something, and it can, even though i'm in prison. >> every member of the tv station but one is serving a life sentence. >> well, i really enjoy it. it's a challenge. of course, i like learning new things and hope to make a career out of it, if i should ever get out of prison. >> lsp tv broadcasts on a closed circuit system 24 hours a day, seven days a week. there are religious shows. educational programming and the most popular of all, sports. >> there's a show called
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"ringside." once a month we go to another prison here in louisiana, and the boxing team here will fight the boxing team there. >> sports keep their minds off the tedium of time. the salary range is only 4 to 20 cents an hour. >> doing what you love, i mean, i'm a boxer. that's what i love. that's what i'm going to do until the day i die. to be able to do what you support a sort of freedom. >> if boxing spice ups angola's weekly tv schedule, it's the rodeo that provides the years's greatest highlights. the event takes place on prison grounds every sunday in october and twice in november. the stadium holds 10,000. all free people coming to see the spectacle. >> no, actually, no, i never rode a horse at all in my life. i come up here and it seemed
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like it just all took place. >> inmates in good standing can participate. no skill required. >> are you nervous? excited? >> i'm not nervous. >> about 51 years. armed robbery and aggravated burgla burglary. bad luck. >> does it hurt? >> just a little bit. >> the inmates also get rewarded for winning the rodeo events. $200 for convict poker. $80 for winning the bull riding event. cowboy of the year awarded to the highest scoring inmate gets a championship buckle. >> these are the worst inmates you could have in any prison in the unt buyet they are rehabilitated to the point where they can come and mingle with
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the people. >> we can have culture change within our prison because we have here. >> some criticize the event's brutality. others say the prisoners don't deserve the excitement of the rodeo. >> these inmates who participate can be king for a day. and that's something they never really get in prison. some people would say, who cares. i say, well, what's one day? >> great day for a rodeo. >> get set for the event that is indeed unique to angola. >> it's about challenging the bull. see who got the biggest -- >> the biggest prize is for guts and glory. the goal? pull a chip off a bad bull's head. it's a brutal event and many a man has sacrificed his own blood
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and bones to take home the $500 prize, worth more than a year's wages. >> genesis 1:26-28, saying god said let us make man in our image and likeness and he said let them have dominion over the beast of the field and every creepy thing that roam against earth. god gave this. thank god. coming up -- while some at angola find freedom in the brutality of the rodeo arena, there are those who barely see the light of day. >> nearest station is too severe for me. >> for them there is camp j.
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angola soil is some of the richest in the united states. and with fieldwork and livestock to attend, horses to be broken, and vegetables to be grown, there is no such thing as an unemployed prisoner. most of the inmates have bought into warden cain's program, but for those who refuse, there's camp j., where the men spend their days in solitary confinement. >> we want them to hate being at camp j so they'll alter their
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behavior, and once they get out into the population, they won't commit another rule infraction. the ones that come here come here for serious rule infractions. it may be an aggravated fight, which is a fight with a weapon. it may be for an assault on staff. it may be for attempting to traffic drugs inside the prison. >> inmates on level one only get out one hour, two days a week. if you make it to level three, you get out three days a week. >> i got busted on a charge on aggravated rape and second-degree kidnapping. i'm not saying that i'm no saint, but i'm saying that everybody is, like, wrong, everybody did wrong. everybody in this world done stole, done lied, done killed, done did everything. ain't no crime is greater than no other crime on this earth. you got assaulting inmates supposed to be here. and you've got certain free folks supposed to be here. supposed to be locked up in here. not be working here, in here. >> trouble's not hard to find,
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if you're looking for it. and if you're not careful, trouble finds you. mccoy. >> yes, sir? >> how you feeling? >> normal, i guess. >> normal? >> yes, sir. >> you looking thin, man. not ready to eat? >> no, sir, i'm not going to eat anything until i can get some results. >> most try to pass through the program as quickly as possible. but then there are some men, like billy mccoy, who's been in and out of camp j for over a decade. >> you get yourself back on track, like you were a week ago. you were doing well. >> yes, sir. >> i will do everything i can to see if we can get you to ccr, but you've got to get yourself advanced in the program first. >> watch this, sir. i am -- i have always been on track. i will maintain my mental stability when i need it in six feet in the ground. i will not lose my mental stability. this morning, since you
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mentioned that, this morning, one of your officers, captain dufolk, dashed a bucket of ice water on me because i won't eat, trying to force me into eating. >> billy, you and i both know that's not true. >> also would not put a tray of food on the tray. your restriction is too severe for me, being 63 years old. >> you will be held here until you can get through the program and conduct yourself -- >> i will die without any food. >> and conduct yourself according to the program. >> i am conducting myself. i will die first. i have been without food for seven days now. >> billy mccoy claims he's been on a hunger strike for seven days. we've documented he's been on a hunger strike for almost three days. he'll eat soon. he's done this before. he never stays on very long. he'll eat a meal and then he can probably go on a hunger strike again right after that meal. >> for those who refuse to cooperate, even the most meager
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amenities that camp j offers are eliminated. >> the different sanctions we can place on an inmate when they get a write-up at camp j, one of the sanctions is called a food loaf. a food loaf will be issued to an inmate who has been caught holding food in his cell, holding utensils or cups, that kind of thing, in his cell. gets caught throwing food or throwing other objects, he can be put on food loaf. >> basically, you have a serving of everything from every chow, like if it's for lunch, you'll have everything on the lunch tray, with the exception of dessert, will be placed in a food loaf. >> can you imagine everything -- this is the result, right here. >> for men serving solitary time, keeping their sanity is the hardest challenge.
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each man has his own way to stay strong. >> i spared your queen. i'm going to take him this time. it expands your thoughts, you know, your thinking ability. you develop a lot of skills from playing chess. it's a thinking man's game, you know? the best move you can make. >> the hardest part of being in a cell 24 hours a day, really, just maintaining your sanity and not letting the pressures get to you. you got a lot of pressure being in the cell. not even being able to have the proper spacing and just, you know, not being able to get out a lot. that's difficult, you know. it's hard to maintain sanity like that. outside that, you know, it's like standing on our head in one spot. a stalemate. so we play a chess game. >> it's your move. >> the two of those guys, i think they probably will be out of camp j soon. both of them have done well while they've been here. it's all about attitude. we can't help somebody if they don't want to help themselves, but i'm more than willing to help any of them who are willing
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to make that effort on their own behalf. >> coming up -- two ways out of angola. one is hard-earned freedom, lurking just beyond the front gate. the other path is death. >> 2,000-pound gorilla on my back. >> it takes about a minute and a half to breathe two breaths usually, and then they'll stop breathing. it can be frustrati. it's hard to turn off and go back to sleep. intermezzo is the first and only prescription sleep aid approved for use as needed in the middle of the night when you can't get back to sleep. it's an effective sleep medicine you don't take before bedtime. take it in bed only when you need it and have at least four hours left for sleep. do not take intermezzo if you have had an allergic reaction to drugs containing zolpidem, such as ambien. allergic reactions such as shortness of breath or swelling of your tongue or throat may occur and may be fatal. intermezzo should not be taken
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if you have taken another sleep medicine at bedtime or in the middle of the night or drank alcohol that day. do not drive or operate machinery until at least 4 hours after taking intermezzo and you're fully awake. driving, eating, or engaging in other activities while not fully awake without remembering the event the next day have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations, or confusion. alcohol or taking other medicines that make you sleepy may increase these risks. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. intermezzo, like most sleep medicines, has some risk of dependency. common side effects are headache, nausea, and fatigue. so if you suffer from middle-of-the-night insomnia, ask your doctor about intermezzo and return to sleep again. ♪
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there are close to 3,000 staff working around the clock to assure the smooth running of this prison. many of them call angola home, raising their children on the b-line, the only town in america built behind prison walls. the citizens call it the safest town in america. >> each one who lives here provides some professional service, more than just his job, like medicals here, doctors are here, emts, the farm, the cows might get out. >> indeed, angola not only has its own zip code, it also has its own golf course.
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if the b-line is the safest part of angola, death row is the most ominous. executions have been temporarily halted, awaiting a ruling by the supreme court. in the meantime, the cells have been filling up. >> how you doing? >> i'm blessed. >> good to see you today. this is my buddy. this is emanuel ortiz. you doing good in here? >> yes. >> are you getting used to this cell block, and it being -- >> well, these cells are larger than the ones we used to have over there. >> so you liking it better? >> it's better. much better. >> it is better? >> yes. >> different. >> manuel ortiz, convicted of murdering his wife and her friend, has been on the row since 1996. >> if you don't exercise your mind or your body, you know, it starts to deteriorate. we try to use push-ups, you
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know, squats, things of that nature. because imagine 40 years in a cage, you know. it takes a toll on the body and on the mind. >> all right. there's my frenchman. you still seeing that french woman? she still writing you? >> men have spent up to two decades here and while some pursue their cases until the last breath, others would just as soon give up. >> there are a lot of guys here, you know, i can't mention no names, you know, but they also would like to get it over. you wake up with a -- with this, i call it a gorilla, you know, a 2,000-pound gorilla on my back every morning. carrying a death penalty. it's something you can't really -- it's reality. >> until recently, contact visits, a chance for family members to touch death row inmates, have been prohibited. >> let me tell you, these guys
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have mamas and sisters and children and grandmas and all that. i don't think they ought to only get to touch you when you're dead, after you're executed. so i'm pretty passionate about letting them have that contact visit, if i know security is going to prevail. but you're not doing it as much for them as you're doing it for their family. and a lot of people misunderstand that and think, oh, he shouldn't have a contact visit. well, his mother didn't commit the murder, you know. you have to think about all sides of it when you're making decisions. >> contact visits or not, their time at angola ends at the death house. the method -- lethal injection. >> at this point, we get them strapped down and get the shoulders strapped down and then i'm going to close the curtain and out comes the emts and they're going to start the ivs. we have from 6:00 to 9:00 to do it. there are the two phones. they go to the department of corrections and the governor's mansion, but they never ring. i give a signal and nod my head
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to start the process and they'll start pushing the drugs, and then it takes about a minute and a half to breathe the two breaths usually, pshew-pshew, and then they'll stop breathing. in the case of john brown, since the i.v. was in his neck, he got a rush, and kind of raised up in the straps. i was holding his hand, he wanted me to hold his hand. i wound up having to put my thumb under here and push him down with my hand, push his shoulder to the table and hold that so the i.v. wouldn't rub on the strap and dislodge. but at the same time, i'm holding his hand. you kind of get in a conflict with yourself, you're holding him down, but holding his hand to give comfort, again, i couldn't be there to hold the victim's hand or i would have, so do what you can here. >> warden cain has overseen six
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executions during his tenure. death by lethal injection might have been temporarily stalled, but death by incarceration never falters. the population is aging, with hundreds of men 60 years and older. even they dream of freedom. >> i got hopes. i just got denied a hearing. a hearing from the department of parole. two weeks later they sent back said, at this time, we can't put you on parole because of the nature of your crime. which is never going to change. you see? never. so here i am. with hope. and faith. if not, i'll die here.
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>> since death is a reality most men here must face, the casket shop never lacks for work. >> 30 years, you know, as time goes on, people get older and i've buried a bunch of friends of mines up here, you know, people i've made friends with in 30 years. >> sideways, get your fingers under there. >> after a man fell out of the bottom of a poorly made coffin in 1997, warden cain opened the casket building workshop. >> you can have a good life in prison. you can have a good life anywhere. it's what you make of it. you know. prison, it's a terrible aspect that you have to be away from the people that you love, you know, your family, your children. my daughter wasn't born when i got locked up and now i'm a grandfather. >> some deceased are picked up by family members and buried as free men. for most, there's point lookout. >> definitely bad to die in prison, but ultimately we all have to die.
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they have a nice service and they're buried with dignity and respect, you know, in angola. coming up, the battle to keep the prison clean requires a shakedown team. >> there's probably not a spot in this cell that something hasn't been found in. >> sometimes they win. sometimes they don't. >> it's really amazing, just where all they can hide stuff. ? by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about...by the bowlful? campbell's soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.
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here's what's happening. at least 28 fans were injured after a crash at a nascar race at daytona international race way. 14 were taken to hospitals. the crash happened at the same track holding today's daytona 500. the track will be ready for the
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race. we're just minutes away from pope benedict's sunday blessing. the pope steps down thursday after nearly eight years as pontiff. i'm veronica de la cruz. now back to lockup. while the b-line families celebrate the holidays, for many of the inmates, it can be a lonely time. >> christmas is a hard time in prison. it is. these people, they're human too. they're inmates, but they're humans. we have to be a little more diligent about watching out for mental health issues and that kind of thing around christmastime, because they do -- it's depressing. >> i really like christmas, but if i stop long enough and i think about it, i'll get teary-eyed. but it will pass. january 1st, it will be all over with.
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>> there is no place in angola where the spirit of christmas is stronger than at the toy shop. the toys are distributed to needy children throughout louisiana. >> what we're going to make for you now is a little car. >> it's basically an all-year process. the only time we stop is when we run out of wood. >> it's the best job in the prison. you're doing something you want to do, and you're doing something to help children. it's a lot of fun. this is the time of year you enjoy being in the toy shop. when i was small, i didn't -- very seldom did i have any toys. although i'm in prison, i'm still a human being and i love christmas and i love children. it makes us all feel good. >> when you mount these on here,
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that's your axles, for your -- you see how the car could ride, okay? now you've got a little car. >> while hard work and faith in god help keep the prison running smoothly, order cannot be maintained without a shakedown crew in daily pursuit of inmates not wanting to play by the rules. >> we shake down every day, kind of random as far as where we shake down. you've got 18,000 acres to cover. they're in these cells 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. there's probably not a spot in this cell that something hasn't been found in. it's really amazing, just where all they can hide stuff. >> you can go back in there. >> do they know you're coming?
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>> no. when we get to the gate, the majority of them probably will. >> finding contraband such as food or nonprison-approved merchandise can lead to write-ups. the less severe have few consequences. the more severe get you back to camp j. random searches are the norm. the odd tip or simply good police work are most effective. >> tips are good. we get a lot of tips. the majority of times we find stuff out of luck. you just kind of come across it, right time, right place. >> once upon a time, weapons were required for an inmate to survive. today, drugs are the most common contraband found. >> found a syringe. use that to shoot up with. can't pin it on nobody, you know what i mean? so you just confiscate it and write an unusual on it and let the wardens know about it.
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>> the only thing i'm going to ask you, when i'm talking to you, be straight up with me. all right? don't make me find different when i leave here. okay? >> i told you yesterday -- >> did you have this at your party? >> that's where some of this stuff came from. >> man, don't lie to me. see that right there, that makes me very angry. needles, where are they at? >> wallet. >> see, i could have just stuck myself with that. i was very, very close to it. and i don't know what you do with this so don't do that, okay? >> i keep them right here. >> don't keep them there. put them somewhere, if somebody comes to shake your stuff down, make sure you tell them you have needles in this box, okay? >> that's the only ones i have right there. >> although needles are not allowed in personal lockers, they rarely result in a write-up. >> what's this for? >> antenna wire for my radio. >> you don't do tattoos, do you? >> no. >> none? >> i can't draw at all. >> i won't find parts to make a tattoo pen.
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>> you won't find parts of anything. >> why do you keep your antenna in your wallet? >> good place to keep it, so i know where it's at. it's right on top. >> i'm going to check on a few things, and i'm going to get back with you. >> i didn't lie to you about anything you asked me about. >> i just want to make sure you're telling me the truth. that's all. >> all right. >> all right. we'll check on some things. >> that's how they do us in here. you see how they handle our stuff? just throw it around and stuff. and then try to tell me i did something wrong. i'm just living, you know what i'm saying? i don't have anything here i'm not supposed to have. all this is official. >> how do you feel now? they go through all that? >> i'm violated, man. checking all my tattoos and stuff, asking me where i'm from. like that makes a difference. i don't have anything in this box that violates the codes here. telling me -- tattoos and stuff. this is free where i work, you know what i'm saying? i got this in california. i got this in new orleans. been around.
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you know what i'm saying? people playing games because we live out of boxes. i'm official with my stuff. there's nothing in here that's violating. i'm used to free world steak and shrimp. they got me eating out of a bag and a box. >> while no contraband turned up in donald logan's shakedown, a pipe made from a pen is found in another dorm. >> it was found in an inmate's box and you can smell it. apparently, they have been using it to smoke marijuana. so i'm going to take to the investigators and get them to crack it open and see if they can get some of the residue out of it and test it. >> a full-time criminal investigation team has been set up at angola with drug-testing capabilities. >> since we don't have the red color but it could have been positive for marijuana, but we may not have enough substance. so we'll call this test an inconclusive test. >> just because it didn't test positive doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't being used for narcotics.
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it just means once it's smoked and burnt, it's harder to test than something that hasn't already been burnt. >> but he'll still be charged with contraband for the ink pen, because he used it for another source than what it's supposed to be used for. >> today's second catch appears much more promising. >> i got to bet lunch that's marijuana. >> the investigation unit is led by retired police officer colonel ken norris. >> we're like an internal affairs unit within this prison. we investigate everything involving the correctional officers as well as the inmates. that's everything from, you know, stealing bacon to murder. >> while a certain percentage of contraband is brought in by prison staff, most comes from prisoner relationships. >> most of the drugs that come through come through by girlfriends, wives, family members. they can bring it in inside their false teeth, bring it in in body cavities. there's all kinds of ways they can bring it in. if the dogs don't hit on it at
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the gate, then it goes through, and we have no mechanism to stop that. if it's positive, it will be the same color or close to the same color as what you see there on that little package. it will be a red. as soon as she breaks the second ampoule. see that? so this is some good stuff. if i hadn't found this, he would have had a very merry christmas and absolutely happy new year. coming up, 6,000 inmates trapped in orleans parish prison after katrina hits. >> there were people breaking windows, starting fires. most of us were afraid that we were going to die there. >> warden cain leads a rescue team while under attack. >> that's one of the things they threw out of that bridge at us. that's a spear. the rhythm of li. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it... in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. great taste. mmm... [ male announcer ] sounds good.
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for every man who ends his life in angola, there are dozens ready to take his place. each week, a new shipment arrives. >> 12, 95, 7. most come to spend the rest of their days behind bars, but since katrina damaged prisons in new orleans, a whole new group, mostly parole violators and men awaiting sentencing, get to pay a visit. >> i'm from keller, louisiana, i'm coming from jefferson parish. i'm on a parole violation. i was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. it happens. >> in the days following katrina, 6,000 inmates were trapped in orleans parish prison. wilford martin was one of them.
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>> when the levees broke is when we noticed that whole businesses outside of the very prison were under water. no sergeants were around, no guards. we don't know where they were at. we were just stuck on the fourth floor. that's when we realized that we were stuck here. it seemed like life or death. >> five days after the levees broke, they were finally rescued by warden cain and his tactical team. >> we came in this way the first night to get the first 950 prisoners, but the water was coming up. we barely got through all of this, all of this water. and we got down here to this underpass and right here was a man laying dead. we put the scaffold right here and it went down from this side. you can see the rope's still there and we would lower it. inmates would climb down that scaffold and we would line them up on this road, about 6,000. probably the largest mass movement, obviously, of inmates in the country. we would put the boats in the water right down here under this overpass and run them around here. meanwhile, the folks on top,
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at first they threw stuff at us. that's one of the things they threw off that bridge at us, it's still right here, do you remember that? that's a spear. >> transported by boat and then bus, close to 2,000 parish prisoners ended up at angola. some perhaps simply victims of bad luck. >> my name is paul kunkle from toledo, ohio. we were on a long vacation, about 35 days, traveling across country, all the way down to cabo san lucas, mexico, where i have a time share. we came back through arizona and texas, where i was looking for property. we went to new orleans, to bourbon street. i fell down and my friend picked me up and we were picked up by the new orleans police and accused of being drunk in public. i've been here 21 days. the first few days we were in the new orleans county jail. we were left without food or water for three days. near riots broke out. there were people breaking
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windows, starting fires. most of us were afraid that we were going to die there, it was so horrible. water was up to our shoulders by the time they got us out of there. they put us in small boats, took us to this bridge area. i saw my friend for about two minutes. first thing he said to me, he said, this is a goddamned nightmare. >> while a nightmare for some, for others, including the first women inmates to sleep at angola in 44 years, a blessing. >> i was so weak, i couldn't even -- i could barely walk when they got me, put me in the boat to come out of there. we had about that much water to drink within three days. and one sandwich. the warden came and got us and put us all like in a little fishing boat and took us up under the bridge and as soon as we got there, they fed us, gave us water. >> what's the lesson you learned from all of this? >> oh, stay the hell out of jail. >> sadly, in the years since
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katrina, crime has skyrocketed in new orleans and the prisons are fuller than ever. >> can't go back to that same crowd you hang with when you come out of five years of prison. because you're going to go back to do the same thing. and that's where i ended up. going back, hanging out with that crowd, thinking everything was school trying to make out for these lost years when i was should have been moving forward with my life and focusing on my me and my little girl. i'm on a mission now. hearing my mom pray. i should have listened. but i didn't listen. locked in this block to rot in another prison. ♪ when he comes i shall be like him ♪ >> moral rehabilitation is the only true rehabilitation. you teach them the skills and trades and to read and write, but we just have a smarter criminal unless we put a moral
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component with it. >> accused by some of turning the prison into a christian revival camp, warden cain has a simple response. >> one guy brought up the issue of separation of church and state. i said to him, don't let your inflexibility make you ineffective. we don't care what religion you are, we just need this church because this is an island of freedom and we get them in here and we can start working on them being a more moral person and our recidivism rates go down, and that equals less victims of violent crime, which is what we're after. if we save one, it's worth it all. one is worth it. and so no one, no one in his right mind would object to trying to have morality in a prison. unless he's an idiot. >> coming up on "lockup: angola" -- >> hey, rick, how long you been here? >> i've been here 24 years. >> time at angola runs out for two men. >> i will maintain my mental stability. >> one walks, the other stays --
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allergic reactions such as shortness of breath or swelling of your tongue or throat may occur and may be fatal. intermezzo should not be taken if you have taken another sleep medicine at bedtime or in the middle of the night or drank alcohol that day. do not drive or operate machinery until at least 4 hours after taking intermezzo and you're fully awake. driving, eating, or engaging in other activities while not fully awake without remembering the event the next day have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations, or confusion. alcohol or taking other medicines that make you sleepy may increase these risks. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. intermezzo, like most sleep medicines, has some risk of dependency. common side effects are headache, nausea, and fatigue. so if you suffer from middle-of-the-night insomnia, ask your doctor about intermezzo and return to sleep again. ♪
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there are few ways out of angola prison. rarely is one granted parole or probation. the prison is simply too big to escape. most just get old and die. one month after we first filmed at camp j, billy mccoy, age 63, had a heart attack. >> i have always been on track. i will maintain my mental stability when i'm dead and six feet in the ground. >> one day later, he died. no one came to claim his body. >> though no family could be contacted, billy mccoy will be buried at point lookout at the
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prison cemetery by volunteers of the point lookout project who soberly understand in doing so, friends and volunteers may be doing the same for them one day. >> is there anybody else that would like to share something they knew of billy mccoy at this time? >> defiant until the end, billy, better known by his nickname "understanding," left a strong impression on his fellow inmates. >> a lot of people didn't understand "understanding" because of his unique way of understanding things. but on a more serious note, i think the common denominator that we all have with mr. billy mccoy is mr. mccoy died in prison, and that's a fate that a lot of us could have to undergo if situations and circumstances don't change. i think we all want to leave a legacy. but if we have an opportunity to leave a legacy, starting right
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here today, we can change some of the things we're doing and how we think, you know. i want to encourage you brothers to, you know, just stay focused, stay diligent, and look toward the future, so when it's all said and done, people can have something good to say about us when it's all said and done. >> amen. ♪ when i die ♪ hallelujah ♪ by and by ♪ i'll fly away, oh, i'll fly away oh glory ♪ >> i would just like to say that ya'll need to really let this be an example to your own life because his life is here. his life is now gone to be with the father and so, let that be testimony to the rest of you in his memory that we conduct ourselves as we should and we conduct ourselves as moral people and we perpetuate that throughout this whole community and let him not die in vain. >> amen. >> earth to earth, ashes to
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ashes, and dust to dust. ♪ no longer bound ♪ no more chains holding me >> while one man is buried, another man gets a second chance. >> hey, warden. >> how you doing? >> are you happy today? >> i'm the happiest man in prison today. >> all right, ricky, you've spent your last night in angola. i'm fixing to send you out. >> right now? >> right now. right now. what do you think about all this? >> oh, man, it's great. i've been waiting for this a long -- >> 24 years. >> long time, warden. >> how does it feel to be innocent in here? >> you can't think about it, warden. when you know you're innocent, if you think about it, it messes with you a little bit. all do you is work on trying to get out.
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>> ricky johnson was cleared of rape based on dna evidence. he was serving a life sentence. >> what do you think about the innocence project? >> oh, man, i love them. >> you love them, huh? >> i love them, warden. i love them. >> they did you a good thing. i love them too. i tell you what, i think it's horrible that a fellow has to be in prison that's innocent. and it makes me shudder to think about it. and it makes me feel real bad to think about you being in here. the transfer's in my office. that's what i come back here to tell you. so i say, congratulations. you had 24 years here with us that you didn't need to have, but you know what, you're going free. congratulations. >> thank you. >> before stepping into the free world, ricky says good-bye to his brother, frederick. he is serving a life sentence for murder. >> i ain't got them pictures, man. you know? >> i told you i was going, but i
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told you. >> i had a dream you went home, man. about two days ago. i had a dream about two days ago you went home, man. >> what was the dream like? what was in the dream? >> i had a dream that he had went home. a dream that he -- somebody told me, man, your brother's gone, man. >> you didn't think i was going sneak out of here on you? you thought i was going to sneak out of here? huh? >> i thought you were gone, man. >> you knew i ain't going to leave here without seeing you, you're my little brother. i love you, man. >> i'm glad to see you go, man. i'm glad to see you go. >> i might be going out of prison, but i ain't going out of your life. okay? >> all right. >> all right. take care of yourself, man. >> i'll take care.

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